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UCL students win London Mayor's Low Carbon prize

14 June 2013

UCL
students Will Hines and Rachel Clemo, studying computer science and history respectively, have won the London
Mayor’s Low Carbon prize - the second year in a row a team from UCL has
triumphed in the competition.

The
winning idea – their business Reseed,
providing a cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative to paper
receipts to businesses in the capital – beat off competition from around 100 other
entries to the competition, sponsored by leading industrial firm Siemens, to
take the top prize of £20,000.

Will
and Rachel’s business, Reseed, is an idea to remove the need for paper receipts and allow users to access their
receipts online using their smartphones. Receipts are costly to produce,
easy to lose, and add to consumer waste, so the idea behind the new system is
to save money for retailers who would be encouraged to donate a percentage of
their savings towards planting more trees – providing both financial and
environmental benefits.

As part of their win, Will and
Rachel receive not only the title of winners of the Mayor's Low Carbon
Prize but the
opportunity to turn their idea into a commercial reality with the £20,000 prize
funding and practical support.

It is not the first time a
UCL team have won the prize, with Bio bean,
which will produce biodiesel and biofuel pellets from used coffee beans, taking
first prize in last year’s competition.

Attending
the awards ceremony at the Siemens
Crystal, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson said:

"The
wonderful wealth of ideas from the many students who entered this year’s prize
is a true testament to the bright minds of London’s future.

“I have
no doubt that every student involved will go from strength to strength as they
move into the world of work, via the exciting apprenticeships opportunities at
Siemens, or as young entrepreneurs forging their own way from the outset, to
ensure London’s economic future.”

The
Mayor's Low Carbon Prize, which is open to students at Further and Higher
Education Institutes across the capital, awards cash prizes to help develop the
best ideas for reducing carbon emissions from London's buildings, transport and
energy infrastructure. It forms part of the Mayor's commitment to achieve a 60
per cent reduction in carbon emissions from 1990 levels by 2025.

Commenting
on Will and Rachel’s win, Timothy Barnes, the Director of UCL’s centre for
entrepreneurship UCL Advances, said:

“Will and Rachel’s win is well
deserved. We at UCL Advances have worked with Will, in particular, for some
time and he has displayed a really impressive drive to innovate at the very edge
of the digital tech frontier.

“Reseed is an excellent example of
this – a truly novel concept which uses a digital solution to create
potentially massive environmental benefits.

“Winning the prize, I am sure,
will go a long way to realising those benefits and it is a brilliant example of
the dynamism and determination of many UCL graduates to become successful
entrepreneurs.”